Meridian Explorer DAC (mk 1)
Mk 1 means “not MQA”
The Mk1 is definitely discontinued. I think the Mk 2 is as well.
The DAC has a mini (not micro) USB input.
It has a 3.5mm jack out for your headphones etc., and an optical S/PDIF out which is also a line-level 3.5mm jack out. Yes, weird, but you read that right.
Comes with a full-fat USB to mini USB cable, so one end goes into your PC, the other into the DAC.
Also comes with some kind of dorky pouch which I’ve never opened.
The blurb says it will do up to 192kbps digital.
There’s loads of crap about drivers. I understand that it will work without drivers on a Mac.
It says it needs drivers for Windows XP etc. I have used it without drivers on Windows 10. Although I doubt it would do up to 192k without drivers.
TBH I don’t know if you can still download the drivers from somewhere. Maybe best check before getting excited.
Obviously you may need to provide USB C cables etc. if you’re planning on plugging it into something funky.
I never got it to work with a phone. This may have been a problem with me, the phone, or the DAC. I can include a USB mini to USB micro cable so you can try to get it to work with a phone, then scream at it like a constipated baboon.
I was going to ask for £20 for this, but it’s going towards the site, and a glance at eBay would suggest that £20 is low, so, £50 to Jon for running the site please. Collected or ferried from @Jim’s next weekend (I’m getting tired of paying to give stuff away).
